family, woodworking, photography, K-pop
Back in February I made this pen-and-mechanical-pencil set for my brother David‘s birthday. He’s a big shot at Union Pacific so I used a buckeye burl wood which I thought looked rather executive-ish.
Lately in woodworking I’ve been making some drawers to fit into E’s closet organizer. We really need the storage but they’re nothing pretty to look at yet. After I get them put into his closet I’ll show you a before-and-after.
I’ve been a fan of illustrator Sarah Jane’s work ever since I saw some of her fabrics at a quilting shop. To me, her work is sweet but not saccharine. I like how she captures the magic of childhood in an endearing and classic way.
I was browsing the Sarah Jane blog over the weekend and saw that she had some new inspirational children’s prints:
This was my favorite print in the new collection. There are versions for girls and boys. You can also personalize the print to match your little one.
You can see a few more of her new inspirational prints here.
Sarah has a number of other art prints; this family tree is another favorite of mine.
Wouldn’t it make a sweet gift for a new niece or nephew? This print also comes as a fabric panel; I love the idea of making Mimi a quilt with it.
If you like Sarah’s work, check out the Sarah Jane blog and shop.
(All images in this post are from Sarah Jane Studios)
Our showing of The Hunger Games last night was fun. N and I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the theater and said hi to his coworkers. We had snagged some extra tickets for N’s parents so they joined us too.
Back when the mania over the books was going on I read them to see what everyone was talking about. I thought the first book was by far the best, with book two being okay but with three being a hot mess. But I thought even the first book had some issues, particularly with the ending. But the setting and the survival-thriller aspects of the story were engrossing and I thought it was a fun read.
The movie wisely emphasizes the best part of the story and leaves out some of the more mystifying details. The best parts like the characterization of Rue are taken directly from the book while they leave out bits that seemed odd in the book like the faces of the dead kids being incorporated onto the mutant dogs.
The production design is great but the best thing about the movie is Jennifer Lawrence’s performance. She is great. I’ve liked her ever since we saw her in Winter’s Bone at Sundance a few years ago.
In Winter’s Bone she plays a no-nonsense Ozak mountain girl who has to track down her deadbeat drug-dealer father in order to keep her family together. It’s a great movie (with mature themes) and in hindsight it seems like it was an 100-minute audition tape for Lawrence’s part in The Hunger Games.
So yeah, even if you haven’t read the books I think it’s worth seeing The Hunger Games.
I hope you have a nice weekend. Ours is going to be pretty low-key. The highlight will probably be watching two hours of Mad Men.
And on that note, an Nintendo-style Mad Men game just for you:
Things have been lovely so far this week. The kids have been pleasant and the weather lovely.
And to cap it off, N and I are going to a showing of The Hunger Games tonight! His office rented out a whole theater–I think seeing a movie with friends makes it that much more fun 🙂
I can’t draw to save my life, but I love art. N and I both like following the careers of a few artists and adding their work to our little collection when we get the chance. Mostly we have affordable prints by artists involved in comics or music.
But we recently bought a few small paintings by Tobin Sprout, painter and guitarist in Guided By Voices (the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of the modern era).
Moon Ray by Tobin Sprout
Flying Saucer #1 by Tobin SproutThese paintings are quite small, about 5 inches wide, which was why we could afford them 🙂 Up close they really are quite nice, especially Moon Ray. We’re going to hang them in E’s room since he is gaga over all things space/robots/laser guns.
On Saturday N and I went with our friend Erica to our first roller derby bout. We had a great time!
Our home team, The Molly Morbids (love the name!), was playing a visiting team, the Nevada East Roller Girls. The wife of one of N’s coworkers is on The Molly Morbids (her derby name is Pain In The Nikki) so we had a lot of fun cheering for her and the rest of the girls on our home team.
The little knowledge I had about roller derby came from watching the movie Whip It a few years ago so I was a little unclear on the rules but after we watched a few jams (plays) it was easy to catch on to the gist of things. The finer points of some jams still eluded me sometimes but it was easy to know when to cheer.
Basically one girl from each team (the “Jammer”) tries to lap the other plays on the rink. The Jammer that gets out in front first becomes the Lead Jammer and scores points for every member of the other team she passes. Her teammates try and help her get past the other team while the other team tries to block her or knock her down.
Legal blocks include hitting anywhere from the other player’s shoulder to their upper thigh (so no smashing them in the face or tripping) and you can hit with your hips, torso, and arm and shoulder (but not elbow).
Besides the exciting plays there are other fun aspects to roller derby: the girls wear fishnets and little spanky shorts and have punny names like Chiquita Wa-bam Ya and Beat-Her Venkman. There’s a lot of entertaining showmanship. But make no mistake, the girls are in great shape and amazingly tough. And you also see women of all shapes and sizes playing this athletic game.
Things were pretty clean the first half of the game but in the second half the blocks were flying. When the girls get knocked down as they’re whipping around the rink it can get pretty brutal, as you can imagine. It was really exciting and I found myself whooping and hollering whenever we scored.
The local league plays most of its games down at an old Food 4 Less in Spanish Fork, which is a long drive for us, but if they come back to Orem I’m totally there.
For more information, see the Happy Valley Derby Darlins site.
Yesterday was an EPIC FAIL, parenting wise.
I had gotten the kids ready to get in the car when I remembered I wanted to grab a cd. Mimi was happily playing with a drawer of Tupperware lids so I dashed down the 5 stairs to our family room. I was grabbing the cd from the shelf when I hear Mimi’s little knees crawling across the floor towards the stairs. I turned just in time to catch her as she starts tumbling down the stairs, but a second too late to stop her from bonking her head on the corner of the banister.
It doesn’t look that bad in the photo but she immediately got a huge goose egg which freaked me out. I used my cell to have a video call with N so he could weigh in on whether I should take her to the doctor but Mimi was fine after she calmed down; no signs of a concussion.
Then later that afternoon Mimi was playing in the Tupperware drawer again while I tidied up the kitchen. I turned my back for ten seconds and she got into the dishwasher packets under the sink. And bit into one. I rinsed out her mouth and gave her some water and called Poison Control who said she would be fine, which she was.
I felt TERRIBLE, like the biggest failure ever–I didn’t keep my baby safe.
If there’s a positive side to this it’s that it has inspired me to buckle down and get the rest of the cabinets painted and put back together so I can put baby locks on all of them. Gah.
I thought I’d bring Cookbooks on Trial back from hiatus by featuring a book that I love, Jaden Hair’s The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
Jaden is a popular food blogger/recipe developer/photographer who runs a culinary empire over at steamykitchen.com. I’ve enjoyed her blog for years and so I decided to try out her cookbook.
A little background about me: I’m not a great cook and I don’t cook dinner from scratch every night (or if we’re being completely honest, most nights) but when I do want to cook something for dinner I usually turn to Asian recipes. One of the reasons why is that I grew up eating a lot of Korean food and so I’m familiar with the flavors, but the main reason is E’s food allergies.
With milk/cheese/butter/cream/eggs/nuts/shrimp off the table I find it easier to cook dishes that don’t include these ingredients in the first place rather than jury rig workarounds that don’t quite taste like the real thing. (Or course, dessert is the exception–I have aspirations to become an capable vegan baker.)
I made a number of things from the book: Baked Garlic Chilli Wings (spicy and perfect for a Superbowl party), Quick Vietnamese Chicken Pho (surprising easy and delicious), Chinese Beef Broccoli (healthy and fast enough for a weeknight meal) and Hoisin and Honey Glazed Baby Back Ribs (tender and delicious). Even after I had tried out a few recipes for the purpose of reviewing the book I found myself going back to it again and again just because it’s fun to read and cook from.
I’m giving this book 5 (out of 5) stars. The instructions are clear, it contains a wide variety of dishes, it’s written in a pleasant conversational voice, it’s lovely to flip through (practically every recipe is accompanied by a well-shot photo), and most importantly, every recipe I’ve tried has turned out deliciously. The only adjustment I’ve had to make is cutting back a little on the five spice powder because N and I aren’t big fans of anise. Also, I wish the recipes included nutritional information, but it’s not an huge issue for me.
Out of all the (many) Asian cookbooks I own, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook is hands-down the most helpful for cooking quick flavorful dinners that you can actually put together on a weeknight. I love flipping through an esoteric super-authentic specialized cookbook as much as the next gal but this book actually gets used at our house.
Jaden writes in such a friendly voice that cooks new to Asian food can get as much out of it as those more familiar with Asian flavors. If you’d like to branch out and try some Asian recipes this would be a good book to start with. And if you want to try out some of her recipes before committing to the book, check them out here.
I’ve enjoyed this book so much that I volunteered to recipe-test Jaden’s second cookbook. N’s excited because it means that he gets a tasty fresh-cooked dinner every night this week. (Tonight it’s Teriyaki Salmon with Miso Asparagus) I just hope he doesn’t get too used to it 🙂
Hoisin and Honey Glazed Baby Back Ribs
from Jaden Hair’s The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook
(Serves 6 as part of a multi-course meal)
Ingrediants
Hoisin Honey Glaze
(Makes one cup)
Directions
I’ve gone through certain periods in my life when I read a lot of poetry: a particularly angsty junior year of high school, certain semesters in college (I studied English). But I haven’t read poetry in years, especially modern poetry.
This video makes me want to change that (and is adorable to boot).
Litany by Billy Collins
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman’s tea cup.
But don’t worry, I’m not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and–somehow–the wine.”
Lovely, right?
I know I haven’t been posting very often here. It’s frustrating to me because I have things to post about (Cookbooks on Trial! Woodworking! Kitchen remodel! Quilting! Sweet Mimi! Funny E!) but lately it’s been hard to find the time to actually sit down and edit the pictures and write the words.
But a few of the things that have been taking up a lot of my time will be wrapping up in the next few weeks and so I should be back in the groove soon. Thanks for your patience.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
A while ago I ran across this recipe for doughnuts made using canned biscuit dough. E is allergic to dairy (among other things) but I found a type of dough that was dairy-free (although it contains beef tallow so sorry, vegans) and it was game-on.
It was only 15 minutes from E and I deciding some fresh doughnuts would be lovely to us holding these treats in our hot little hands.
All you do is
Because of E’s food allergies it can be hard to find baked goods he can have, let alone ones that are delicious and quick to make. This is the most excited I’ve been about a recipe in a long time. They are sooo good when they’re fresh and hot.